Percutaneously or orificially pushable and placeable devices, such as catheters, drainage tubes or ureteral stents, are often made from elongate hollow tubes of polymeric materials. Polymeric tubes, however, often have a high profile or large wall diameter to have sufficient rigidity to be percutaneously deliverable without collapse of the tube. In many cases, however, such large profiles are undesirable as causing patient discomfort or being excluded from use in small bodily lumens.
Polymeric tubes, for example catheters, have been reinforced with metallic supports, such as metallic coils or braids, to provide rigidity and pushablility while attempting to minimize the overall profile. The metallic supports, when used, are typically encased within the polymeric walls of the tube or catheter. While such supported tubes or catheters may have reduced profiles, their manufacture is expensive and complicated. Moreover, the tubular walls are often smooth polymeric surfaces making it difficult to coat its wall surfaces with a drug for drug delivery into a bodily lumen. For example, it is often difficult to maintain a catheter within a body lumen or organ for prolonged periods because in vivo access for drug delivery is often very difficult.
Furthermore, many applications exist where an infusion and/or aspiration valve is incorporated into the distal tip of a tube, such as a catheter. Such valves may be used for sampling bodily fluids or for transmitting fluids into a bodily lumen. Typically, the valves are slits within the polymeric wall of a tube or catheter. Such slits may be difficult to use in practice and may be difficult to keep clean during prolonged placement within a bodily lumen.
There is a need in the art for indwelling tubular devices, such as catheters, drainage tubes or stents, having low profiles. Moreover, there is a need in the art for such devices having aspiration and/or infusion values or drainage sites without the disadvantages of the prior art.